Project Officer (Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS)) (P)

The Project Officer (MHPSS) will manage and coordinate a five-year initiative to improve living conditions in security-critical contexts in DRC, focusing on mental health and psychosocial support. The role involves technical guidance, capacity building, liaising with stakeholders, and ensuring donor compliance.

Responsibilities

• Manage the overall implementation and budget monitoring of the KfW-funded project while maintaining relevant donor visibility, in line with IOM Rules and Regulations.
• Provide technical and operational guidance to a multidisciplinary team composed of psychologists, social workers, educators, arts and sports animators, and a social cohesion officer.
• Develop a capacity-building plan and lead on the training of IOM’s MHPSS and social cohesion programme staff and implementing partners in line with the IOM Manual on Community-Based MHPSS in Emergencies and Displacement and the IOM Technical Note Integrating MHPSS in Peace and Recovery Programming.
• Liaise closely with governmental and non-governmental counterparts, including the National Mental Health Program and the Ministry of Health (DPS) at the provincial level and other relevant entities in respective health zones.
• Represent IOM in relevant MHPSS fora, including in other Eastern DRC provinces than Tanganyika.
• Lead on training activities for governmental and non-governmental stakeholders at provincial level, including Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), community leadership structures, peacebuilding actors focusing on MHPSS and social cohesion.
• Lead on awareness-raising and communication campaigns fostering psychosocial support, social cohesion, mutual tolerance and peacebuilding initiatives in the project areas.
• Oversee the rehabilitation plans for primary health care centres, community spaces, etc., as well as the development of small-scale community projects aiming at enhancing social cohesion, in close collaboration with relevant units of the Tanganyika sub-office.
• Produce quality progress financial, narrative, and other reports related to the project activities by ensuring timely submission and compliance with donor and IOM requirements.
• Ensure adequate information management on project-related activities, including visibility by providing regular updates, summaries, press releases, and other relevant materials, in coordination with the donor and relevant units at the country office.
• Perform such other duties as may be assigned.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Psychology, Social Work, Psychiatry, Social Sciences, Anthropology or a related field from an accredited academic institution with five years of relevant professional experience; or, University degree in the above fields with seven years of relevant professional experience.
• Professional accreditation from a recognized medical, psychological or counselling association-society is an advantage.
• Experience in project development, management and reporting.
• Experience in assessing and analysing MHPSS needs in complex emergency and post-conflict contexts.
• Experience in coordinating and providing multi-layered, community-based MHPSS, including via implementing partners.
• Proven experience in integrating MHPSS in post-recovery and activities related to livelihood, social cohesion, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR), dialogue and conflict transformation and durable solutions.
• Experience in working with peace brokers and small-scale community initiatives.
• Experience in clinical supervision and capacity building of mental health professionals and social workers is an asset.
• Experience working with migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), ex-combatants and other vulnerable groups.
• Knowledge and experience in facilitating training and developing training curricula.
• Prior work experience with international humanitarian organizations, non-government or government institutions/organization in a multi-cultural setting.
• Previous participation in the IOM corporate programme in “Psychosocial Interventions in Emergency and Displacement” will be considered an asset.
• Capacity to effectively coordinate actions with other implementing partners including from the emergency sector.
• Capacity to support adequate levels of information sharing between internal units, cluster partners, IOM and other emergency and post-recovery response actors.
• Demonstrated leadership skills and proven ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with persons of diverse cultural and national backgrounds.
• Proven interpersonal and teamwork skills.
• Excellent communication and report-writing skills.
• Knowledge of protection principles and IOM policies and procedures is an advantage.
• Demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Fluency in English and French (oral and written) is required.
• Working knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish) or Swahili is an advantage.

Skills

• Project Development
• Project Management
• Project Reporting
• MHPSS Needs Assessment
• MHPSS Analysis
• Community-based MHPSS
• MHPSS Coordination Support
• MHPSS Integration
• Clinical Supervision
• Capacity Building
• Training Facilitation
• Training Curriculum Development
• Working with vulnerable groups
• Psychosocial Interventions
• Information Sharing
• Stakeholder Liaison
• Donor Compliance
• MS Word
• MS Excel
• MS PowerPoint

Languages

English, French